Red Sox, Orioles benches clear after Alexander's hard slide — SkimNews
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- Blaze Alexander slid aggressively into second base but didn't appear to make contact with Baltimore second baseman Nick Sogard during the eighth-inning double play that ended with Boston leading 1-0.
- Alexander said he initiated the verbal exchange because Sogard and shortstop Trevor Story were staring at him after the slide, calling it a 'clean slide into the bag.'
- Sogard said he had no problem with the slide and was only looking back to see how far Alexander had gone after crossing the bag.
- Alexander gestured to Orioles fans to make more noise during the scrum, but no ejections were issued.
- Arodis Chapman worked a scoreless ninth for his 399th career save, sealing Boston's 1-0 win and sending Baltimore to its fourth straight defeat.
- Baltimore finished the night three games behind Cleveland for the final AL wild-card spot, with Toronto and Texas sitting in between them.
- Alexander acknowledged he hoped his words might spark a two-run rally against Chapman, saying 'you score two there, we win, and it looks real good.'
Why it matters: The skirmish adds late-season tension to a Red Sox-Orioles series while Baltimore's fourth straight loss widens its wild-card deficit to three games behind Cleveland — a margin Alexander himself tried to chip away at by goading the home crowd into one last rally.
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